Let's Get Fictional

New Segment!!

What happened to the inconsistency you’ve become accustomed to on this website?!

Here’s what’s up:

YouTube is NO MORE! Kidding, not really. Long story short, I’m reserving videos for special occasions. I wanted YouTube to be an addition to this site, and for the moment it’s just taking away from it.

Oh wells.

Here’s what else is up- since I now have that load taken off my back- I’m beginning a new series on Mondays.

“WHA-WHAT?!” You say. “FIRST FICTIONAL FRIDAYS AND NOW THIS!?”

To that I say…. OOOOOOOOH YEAH!

Now, and yes this is related, I’ve been researching women in the Bible for… a project 😉

Not just your Esther’s and Ruth’s and Mary’s and Martha’s….

No- I’ve been actually researching ALL women who’ve made ANY appearance in the Bible, EVER.

(Oh, yes. It’s quite a long list. You can actually check it out here.)

During my research so far, I’ve uncovered stories of women from all walks and backgrounds- whose stories tend to be overshadowed by others.

Well, no more!

Today, I give you the first in my new series…. Bible Girls

Let’s get started-

We find our first group of women in the book of Numbers.

Now, in chapter 26, we’re given an introduction of sorts to these ladies. The verse begins with their father, Zelophehad, the great-great-grandson of Manassah. It states that he had no sons, but five daughters- Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. (vs 33)

Fast forwarding to chapter 27, and our story begins.

Zelophehad’s daughters came and stood by the door of the tabernacle, before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the princes, and all the congregation laying out the facts:

Their father had died. He had nothing to do with Korah or his followers. And he had no sons. (vs 1-3)

They then go on to make their request-

“Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father.” (vs 4)

They were simply asking for what they felt was rightfully theirs- an inheritance from their father.

So, Moses then goes and presents “their cause” to God. And God is all like, they’re right. Give them the inheritance, man! (Totally paraphrasing)

Also, God commands Moses to speak with the rest of Israel saying that if a father dies without a son, his inheritance goes to his daughter. If he doesn’t have a daughter, then it goes to his brethren. And if he doesn’t have any brethren, then it goes to his father’s brethren. And if his father’s got no brethren, then it’ll go to his next of kin. (Phew)

Now, in those times… how rare was it for a group of unmarried women to band together and claim what was rightfully there’s? Pretty dang. In fact, history claims that these women would have had some sort of liaison, speaking on their behalf.

But here are these band of sisters, stepping before all the important leaders of their time. And what do they do? They say what they need to with honesty and are straight to the point.

They knew that they had a right to their father’s inheritance. That it was totally unfair for them to lose it, just because they weren’t of the male variety.

And as Moses went to the Lord to present their cause…. God completely agreed. “The daughters of Zelophehad speak right”, He said.

I think there’s such important lessons to be found in this little story.

#1 Speak up- When you know that you’re right, when you know the truth, don’t be afraid. Don’t keep it in. Speak up for yourself. And also, for each other. Us women need to band together, amirite?

#2 God Knows- We don’t get the whole picture of what went down after these bold women made their case. Chances are there were a few that laughed at them. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter because God’s word was final. He knew they were right.
And the same can be said for us. When we speak against injustice and the world laughs back at us… it doesn’t matter. God knows the truth. And we know who really gets the last laugh… (bad joke?)

We get an epilogue of sorts in chapter 36, when a bit of confusion goes around about the inheritance regarding marriage.

So God makes a new law that states that any woman who has an inheritance is to marry a man from her own family’s tribe, so the inheritance stays in the tribe and isn’t given to another. And if they were to marry a man from a different tribe, they’d then lose their inheritance.

Regarding the daughters of Zelophehad, God then says… “Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.”

And so, they do marry- “their father’s brother’s sons”. So yeah, basically their cousins. Which wasn’t weird then, like it is now. (Or whatever)

But I think the great thing to close on is this… “Let then marry to whom they think best.”

Some might get this pessimistic view that they didn’t want to lose their inheritance so they were forced to marry their cousins…. but I like to believe this means they married who they wanted to. That maybe they married for love and were able to keep what was rightfully theirs.

A “you can have your cake and eat it too” kind of moment.

But yeah, that’s all I’ve got. Until next week.✌️

(Oh, and by the way… if this doesn’t make any sense… I blame the drugs. Aka Mucinex.)